“Sometimes you want a recipe that is so unbelievably simple,” Jamie muses, where the oven does the heavy lifting. He presents a “most beautiful warm aubergine salad” with a homemade pesto.
The Magic of Roasted Aubergine:
Aubergine, or eggplant, is a favorite of Jamie’s. He aims for a texture that’s “meaty and Moorish, and really silky and elegant.”
The method? “The easiest method ever.”
| Roasting Aubergines | Details |
| Aubergines | 2 |
| Oven Temperature | 180°C (standard oven) |
| Roasting Time | ~50 minutes |
Simply place two whole aubergines on a tray and whack them in the oven. Once roasted, cut them in half. The inside, as Jamie describes, is “like caviar…soft and silky.” You can remove the skin, but he quite likes its “charriness.”
A Greek-Inspired Pesto Twist:
While the aubergines roast, prepare the salad and pesto. For the salad, Jamie uses round lettuce, oak leaf lettuce (some homegrown!), herbs like basil, and even edible flowers like nasturtiums (“fresh, then you get pepper…then it calms down and then you get peaches and apricot”) and courgette flowers. Wash and thoroughly dry your salad leaves so the dressing sticks.
The pesto is where things get exciting. “Pesto meaning ‘paste’ can be many, many things,” Jamie notes. This version takes inspiration from Greece.
| Greek-Inspired Pesto Ingredients | Quantity | Notes |
| Mint | A good bunch | Could use basil or parsley |
| Almonds (unpeeled) | A little handful | Pine nuts or pistachios also work |
| Lemon | 1 | Zest (if washed) and juice with pulp |
| Honey | 1 tablespoon | For sweetness to balance acidity |
| Feta Cheese | A little | Used almost like seasoning, plus more for top |
| Olives (green & black) | About 8 | Buy with stones in for best flavor, then destone |
| Extra Virgin Olive Oil | To bind |
Combine mint leaves (stalks removed), almonds, lemon zest, honey, lemon juice (with pulp), a bit of feta, and olive oil in a pestle and mortar (or food processor for speed, though Jamie prefers the rustic texture of hand-pounding). Add the destoned olives. The resulting pesto is “sweet, sour, salty, full of fragrance.” Sprinkle a little more feta on top. This pesto will dress the salad leaves and, crucially, “embellish the amazing aubergine.”
Quick Yogurt Flatbread:
To accompany this, Jamie makes the “simplest little flatbread.”
| Quick Flatbread Ingredients | Quantity | Notes |
| Self-Raising Flour | 4 heaped tbsp | |
| Yogurt | ~4 tbsp | Adjust for dough consistency |
| Garlic (optional) | A little | For a garlic bread version |
| Black Pepper (optional) | To taste | |
| Herbs (optional) | Thyme, Rosemary | For flavor |
Mix flour and yogurt to form a dough – add more flour if too wet, more yogurt if too dry. Knead briefly until no longer sticky. Roll it out thinly (a pestle, wine bottle, or rolling pin works). Jamie embellishes his by adding sliced garlic, black pepper, and herbs like thyme flowers and rosemary, rolling them into the dough. Cook in a very hot oven (or a hot pan) for a few minutes until puffed and golden. Kiss with olive oil.
Plating the Masterpiece:
Create a bed of salad leaves. Place the roasted aubergine (halved or sliced) on top. Generously spoon over the pesto. Finish with a few mint or basil leaves, a crumble of feta, and a kiss of olive oil. Serve with the warm flatbread for tearing and dipping. “The texture of the aubergine is so velvety, so silky…and what’s really nice is because the aubergine is still warm with the cold salad, you get that contrast.”
